The stupidity of Universal Mechanics

There has a movement among role playing games for the last decade to tout a "universal mechanic" to resolve all actions which cannot be adjudicated fairly through role play. The entire "d20 revolution" was based on this, as is Castles & Crusades' SIEGE Engine. This is a really dumb idea.

Good role playing games operate at many levels. The two most frequently encountered ones are in persona role playing (where you resolve issues through role play and group consensus) and combat. D&D 4E has introduced Skill Challenge Encounters, and there are many others of course. But each game-level must be its own game with rules well tailored to that game in order to perfect the "fit" between rules and player action. Could you imagine if my chess variant tried to use a universal mechanic to adjudicate both the chess moves and the Street Fighter matches? Neither chess nor Street Fighter would be improved thereby. So it is with any other games-within-a-game. The developers at Rockstar Games certainly understand the need for well designed sub-games.

The problem with the universal mechanic is that it places a serious limitation on the types of sub-games a given rpg can incorporate. Classic D&D could never have incorporated rules for small team combat, wrestling, mass combat, naval warfare, dominion management, multiverse wanderings, and spellcasting if it had insisted on a universal mechanic. And if D&D 4E shows us anything, it's that when you try really hard to make universal mechanics work, many things get lost while what remains ends a bland melange of actions that all feel exactly the same.

Do not fear bespoke mechanics. They're what makes each level of a game interesting.

UPDATE: Just thought of something:

Dear Old Schoolers,

Answering every "How should I resolve situation X?" question with "Roll an attribute check" or "Roll percentile dice" is a universal mechanic (see above for why that's bad). Sometimes, if situation X comes up often enough, it's advisable to develop a bespoke mechanic. Especially if the players can reasonably expect their characters to get better at situation X as they level up. That's not a betrayal of Gary Gygax's legacy, it's just good sense.

Thanks,

IR